Τα θραύσματα της ωραιότητας στην εποχή της νεωτερικότητας: Η Ελένη στο φακό της αποδόμησης (Κατερίνα Αγγελάκη-Ρουκ – Νάνος Βαλαωρίτης)

Abstract

This article investigates the myth of Helen as a locus of poetic deconstruction and ideological revision in the works of Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke and Nanos Valaoritis, two emblematic figures of post-war Greek poetry. Within the framework of modernity, feminist poetics, and mythopoetic intertextuality, the study examines how the archetype of Helen—traditionally associated with beauty, seduction, and destruction—is recontextualized as a dynamic metaphor for existential and historical trauma. In Anghelaki-Rooke’s poetry, Helen is divested of her mythological aura and reconstructed as a female subject who articulates resistance to patriarchal discourse and militaristic ideology, embodying an ethical vision grounded in peace and care. Valaoritis, conversely, appropriates the classical myth within a surrealist and meta-poetic idiom, where fragmentation, irony, and linguistic experimentation expose the disintegration of meaning and the collapse of modern subjectivity. Through a comparative analysis, the paper argues that both poets transform the myth into a discursive field of self-reflexivity, where the ancient narrative becomes a vehicle for negotiating issues of identity, memory, and cultural continuity. The myth of Helen thus transcends its traditional aesthetic function to emerge as a critical site of re-signification, reflecting the tensions between antiquity and modernity, myth and history, language and silence. By tracing these processes of poetic metamorphosis, the study contributes to broader discussions on classical reception, gendered mythography, and the politics of rewriting in twentieth-century Greek literature.